Kangana Ranaut on Sonam Kapoor: Who gives her a right to judge mehttps://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/kangana-ranaut-statement-sonam-kapoor-vikas-bahl-case-sexual-harassment-5391505/

Kangana Ranaut on Sonam Kapoor: Who gives her a right to judge me

Sonam Kapoor's reaction over Kangana Ranaut's statement about working with Queen director Vikas Bahl has left the Manikarnika actor miffed. Vikas Bahl has been accused of alleged sexual harassment by a former Phantom employee.

Sonam Kapoor on Sunday slammed filmmaker Vikas Bahl who has been accused of sexual harassment by a former employee of Phantom Films. However, the way she picked some words while reacting to Kangana Ranaut’s experience of working with the Queen director, hasn’t gone down well with the Manikarnika star.

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Kangana on Monday issued a statement which read, “What does she mean by saying, ‘it’s hard to believe Kangana’? When I am sharing my MeToo story, who gives her a right to judge me? So Sonam Kapoor has the license of trusting some women and some she won’t. What makes her so unsure of my claims, I am known to be an articulate person, I have represented my country in many international summits, I am called as a thought and youth influencer to these summits, I am not known because of my dad. I have earned my place and credibility after struggling for a decade. She isn’t known to be a great actress, neither she has the reputation of being a good speaker. What gives these filmy people right to take digs at me!”

Sonam Kapoor speaking at the Vogue We the Women summit in Bengaluru. (Photo: APH Images)

Sonam Kapoor had spoken in-depth about the current MeToo movement in Bollywood at the Vogue We the Women summit in Bengaluru over the weekend. While talking about the Vikas Bahl sexual harassment case, Sonam said, “I think Kangana wrote something. Kangana is obviously Kangana Ranaut. She says a lot of stuff and sometimes it is hard to take her seriously. I love the fact that she has spunk and she says what she believes. I really respect her for that. I don’t know him, I don’t know the situation. If what is written is true, then it’s disgusting and awful. If it’s true, then they should be punished for it.”

Sonam here was referring to Kangna’s experience of working with Vikas in Queen. Kangana had earlier said, “Every time we met, socially greeted and hugged each other, he (Vikas) would bury his face in my neck, hold me really tight and breathe in the smell of my hair. It took me a great amount of strength and effort to pull myself out of his embrace. He’d say ‘I love how you smell K’. I could tell something is wrong with him.”

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Kangana Ranaut with director Vikas Bahl during the shooting of their film Queen.

Kangana shared her experience in the light of Phantom’s closure and a Huffpost India article where an ex-Phantom employee revealed that she was sexually harassed by the production house’s co-partner and filmmaker Vikas Bahl in 2015.